The Las Uvas Building Project!

This gives a little overview of what we got done today. The existing wood frame that used to be the Las Uvas church is now gone!!! Thanks to a donor who donated $4,000 into the Zaid Memorial Revolving Fund we are now able to start building block walls and install doors and windows. It is becoming more and more our personal ministry policy that we just don't give our people everything they need. That's why we came up with the revolving fund. We have donors who like to give to projects but we as missionaries don't like to just give things away because it creates dependency. So the fund serves to meet present needs but gives our people the responsibility of paying the money back to the fund so the money can be used again in the future for other projects. I'm anxious to see how this experiment plays out. It's going to take them awhile to pay it back but it will be worth it in the long run. They will have a greater love and appreciation for their church.

The first step was to take off the tin roof. We plan to reuse this roof, the tin is still in good condition.

Bro. Baudilio was our tin carrier. He stacked the tin and wood as we tore it off.

Baudilio also helped to dig a ditch to help drain the rain water around the church.

Gecko eggs that we found hidden away high in the rafters.

It was a bit of a challenge getting the rafters down. We plan to reuse the rafters so we didn't want to disassemble them.

A rope and home-made pulleys came in handy.

Then we had to pick the cement around the beams and remove all the old wooden beams so we can put in cement columns. 

I picked and picked and picked and picked and picked some more on this one beam. It was kinda funny. These guys are experts with this stuff and here I am learning as I go. My hands are still sore!

My team of helpers!! These guys are great!

The pad is ready for the blocks and cement. I can't wait to lay the first one!